Meant to be

The purpose of our travels is not just to see the unseen but bring those visions back home to share it with whom we love. And that is what my random trip to Taiwan last year was all about.
When an excursion with a Chinese room- mate suddenly turned into a solo trip, I did not know what to expect from this tiny island country that everyone seemed to love so much. The 7 days around the island was not what made this trip memorable. It was indeed the cheapest but striking journey from a city on the south west, Kaohsiung to a beach town in the south to Kenting that makes Taiwan so special for me. While the touristy thing to do is to take a plush, air-conditioned and super comfortable bus from Kaohsiung metro station to Kenting, I took a local train that cost 1/5th the price of the bus.

And that is when the fun began. I boarded an empty coach with one old lady and her stick. I caught hold of the window seat in in front of her and prepared my camera to catch the lush, green landscapes to come. Apart from our destinations, there seemed to be no common factor between the two of us. My Indian skin tone and big eyes were foreign to her while her Chinese murmurs were imperceptible to me. The train was about to depart when our eyes locked in a gaze and the typical “traveller” spirit poured out. I later figured that she simply wanted to find out when the train would leave.

The journey began and the locomotive stopped at all the small suburbs and hamlets through the Southern coast before it terminated at Fangliao. The language barrier was incapable of resisting the human urge to connect. Signs, pictures, and symbols acted as words so that she and I could know each other better. Until, thankfully a Taiwanese teen entered the coach and joined us. The old lady invited her to become a translator so that she could satisfy her curiosity to know about my past days in Taiwan, country of origin, name, age, occupation etc. I helped her off the train at Fangliao and tried to bid farewell but she asked me to tag along. I followed her first to a restaurant and then through an artsy house to her country house and fine orchard. Her daughter welcomed me, offered me refreshing chinese tea and dried plums from their farm. She insisted her daugther set me off on a bus to Kenting.

A visit to a traditional Chinese house, warm locals and kind deeds delayed my actual plan by nearly 3 hours but then this was the actual journey. Something I will cherish and share time and again.